The funny thing about the shado-pan story and what it all relates to, we were lead to believe that the pandaren themselves were people who simply by being overly good and relaxed about life and being friendly is all they needed to do to keep peace in there lands.

Yet scratch the surface and what he find are things like the shado-pan, with them keeping the sha in check, keeping watch for when the mantid swarm again, keeping the mogu held back, and there general hardened approach to all matters, you find that pandaria has always been a land with conflict, and the only thing keeping in held in check has been hardened vets and fighters standing against the evils of the land, while the rest of the pandaren act chilled and meditating.

I'm actually a little disappointed in the approach of this story, its more of less debunks the pandaren culture with the shado-pan as going as far to use cruel methods of punishment, which doesn't seem anything like pandaren and even borders on garrosh-ish type orcs.

the difference is that stalvan was one person, and scholomance should be a gruesome place full of evil people. the pandaren should be zen and peaceful. instead we get people whipping starving children and the "army" locking kids in a room with deadly animals.

Who is to say they are not zen and peaceful? Perhaps their methods of discipline are shocking and extreme to some, but are they not effective? Would you call Thich Quang Duc, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk who burned himself alive at a busy intersection in Saigon to protest the persecution of Buddhists by South Vietnam foolish and utterly useless or could you empathize with his point of view at all? Sometimes extreme measures need to be taken.

The funny thing about the shado-pan story and what it all relates to, we were lead to believe that the pandaren themselves were people who simply by being overly good and relaxed about life and being friendly is all they needed to do to keep peace in there lands.

Yet scratch the surface and what he find are things like the shado-pan, with them keeping the sha in check, keeping watch for when the mantid swarm again, keeping the mogu held back, and there general hardened approach to all matters, you find that pandaria has always been a land with conflict, and the only thing keeping in held in check has been hardened vets and fighters standing against the evils of the land, while the rest of the pandaren act chilled and meditating.

I'm actually a little disappointed in the approach of this story, its more of less debunks the pandaren culture with the shado-pan as going as far to use cruel methods of punishment, which doesn't seem anything like pandaren and even borders on garrosh-ish type orcs.

IMO the best way to sum up the Shado'pan is right there on the Wrath box. "Stare too long into the abyss, and the abyss stares back into you."

If we hadn't shown up and blown the cap on the 7 (because I believe #7 will be next tier) Sha, it would probably have been the Shado'pan that did it. They even make it clear that they feel all the emotions of the Sha, but they simply repress it.

Originally Posted by Shado-Master Chong

I should feel some shame at the loss of the village. I should feel great pride in your success.
I should feel many things, but must not allow myself to. Until our struggle with the sha is complete, we must maintain total control of our emotions.

the simple thing is the darker the night the brighter the dawn, which is something borehammer could serve to learn.

warhammer (both fantasy and 40k) is just unrelenting barbarism and brutality, to the point if first becomes funny then it becomes boring.
there is no good in warhammer, only death and pain on a scale that it doesn't matter.

in WoW they actually have contrast, and in this case they make the bad worse to make the good greater.

against the other shado-pan nurong comes off as soft and caring, not cause he is but because of contrast.
he even pushes a break in tradition(the reason they do this whole thing) and allows them to skip the third test.

I like. It's realistic and shows that Shado-Pan is not "HURR DURR WE AR WURIORZ OF LIGHT, PURE OF ANY EVIL, WHITE KNIGHTS ON SHINY MOUNTS". Hell, now they even more resemble Night's Watch from A Song of Ice and Fire.

the simple thing is the darker the night the brighter the dawn, which is something borehammer could serve to learn.

warhammer (both fantasy and 40k) is just unrelenting barbarism and brutality, to the point if first becomes funny then it becomes boring.
there is no good in warhammer, only death and pain on a scale that it doesn't matter.

in WoW they actually have contrast, and in this case they make the bad worse to make the good greater.

against the other shado-pan nurong comes off as soft and caring, not cause he is but because of contrast.
he even pushes a break in tradition(the reason they do this whole thing) and allows them to skip the third test.

Good job using Anduin's quote from the White Tiger Temple there.

And yeah, when the point of your game is "You shouldn't be hiding behind boxes like a pussy, you should be out there knee-deep in the gore of your enemies" then you clearly don't have much room for story.

WoW has always been a game that really isn't 100% child friendly or 100% hardcore dark. Sometimes it has it's "kiddyish" moments for comic relief or when the situation fits, and other times it's just downright dark and brutal.

And yeah, when the point of your game is "You shouldn't be hiding behind boxes like a pussy, you should be out there knee-deep in the gore of your enemies" then you clearly don't have much room for story.

what quote?

and the game was good, but it also breaks from canon pretty damn hard.
honestly, i kinda wish there was less "his behind chest-high walls" in shooters.

imagine how much better duke nukem forever would of been in he had only recovered ego from killing and damaging opponents.
but no, gearbox are apparently a bunch of lairs and cheats, releasing a dolled up demo for a shit-pile of a game.

the people from halfhill whipped the boy for stealing from garbage and warming his paws. they aren't any better than the shado-pan.

While he may have been literally whipped, don't forget that he could have also just meant "beat" or "spanked," as people have been using "I'm gonna whip/whup you" for some time. I can't imagine Pandaren owning or using actual whips beyond farming, especially since most of their philosophies seem to stem from an aversion/non-use of weapons.

Originally Posted by checking facts

the difference is that stalvan was one person, and scholomance should be a gruesome place full of evil people. the pandaren should be zen and peaceful. instead we get people whipping starving children and the "army" locking kids in a room with deadly animals.

That would be the definition of the ideal Pandaren. A lot of people seem to gloss over all Pandaren as being happy and peaceful all the time, while forgetting that it must create a ton of internal struggle. Just imagine knowing that if you let yourself go too far, get too angry, you could end up destroying your home or family. It's part of the reason why they eat and drink so much, to help them enjoy life even when it's hard, to help keep any bad thoughts at bay. It seems obvious to me that not everyone would be able to hold themselves to such a standard for their entire life, especially starving orphans.

Originally Posted by mysticx

I think Blizz are overcompensating for all the "Kung fu panda lol!"-sentiment, and for half the panda-related quests involving booze in some way, so we get an uber-gritty story that doesn't mesh with the "We must remain light-hearted to not get infected with the Sha"-dealie that we get our faces rubbed in every zone we quest in...

I don't think they're combating Kung Fu Panda so much as their own created image. With MoP's release, we did see plenty of dark quests, sure, but it was mostly in the higher-level zones that, if you leveled like me, you didn't even see 'til you were max level (I hit 90 only a few quests into Kun-Lai). A lot of people see questing as nothing more than a means to a level cap, so that meant the majority of your time was spent with the happiest of Pandaren in the most idyllic of zones, the Valley of the Four Winds.
5.1 was really a breath of fresh air, as it reintroduced more Alliance/Horde fighting, but also digs deeper into the horrors of Pandaria's past. And I think this new story is likely meant as less of a contradiction, and more of a counterpoint, to the whole Li Li thing, which I didn't read admittedly but from questing alongside her in-game was probably 90% lighthearted and fun. We've seen the lighter side of the Pandaren, now Blizz wanted to show us just how dark they can get while still fighting for the greater good.

Originally Posted by checking facts

shouldn't they try to direct that at the villains?

If all the villains were pure evil and all the champions pure good, that would make for awfully flat and boring characters, don't you think? A lot of the main characters of the game (faction leaders, etc.) are only just now getting interesting because for years they were incredibly static and it was easy to read what their choices would be. It's kind of what makes Garrosh kind of laughable and boring now; most other leaders there's no telling what they'll do since they've become more grey, but Garrosh has become so black and white, you can tell what his choice/actions will be before he even does them.

As anyone who's actually bothered reading the short story will notice, the OP is slightly biased in his summary.

The Shado-pan catch him and give him 2 options:

1 - Forced Labor to pay for his crimes of being a hungry child who steals to survive;
2 - he'd be bound, have his eyes, feet and most fingers removed from his body, he'd be taken to the monastery, tortured and than thrown to his death in a canyon;

Correction, they give him the following choices :

1 - Giving back the stolen scroll to prove that he's not an agent of the mantid, so that the Shado-Pan can then hand him over to the village council who will probably give the little thief community service for his larceny habits;

2 - Refusing to give back the scroll, which would confirm to them that he is a spy likely corrupted by the sha, forcing them to take much more drastic measures to foil the plan of his nefarious masters.

It sure doesn't sound as gratuitous when you put it in the Shado-Pan's perspective, eh ?

Originally Posted by Mexa

The shado pan seem cool. They got my full support, and i think its nice that the pandaren arent just drunks and hippies, but actually got some backbone.

I wasn't aware that being good-natured was akin to lacking a backbone. Thanks for the clarification, tough guy.

Originally Posted by reffan

Hell, now they even more resemble Night's Watch from A Song of Ice and Fire.

MoP mature?? pmsl..... pandas, pathetic attempts at asian language, hozen, pandas, kungfoo bolex, humour that makes me feel nauseas, pandas, etc etc, did i mention pandas??
Pandaria should never have been made as an xpac.. a patch maybe but come on, i used to be able to take wow quite serious (you know in a dark nerdy kinda way).. now i detest wow because of pandaland... mature my arse lol... so much wrong with MoP its unreal, and its made wow into a joke of game....

i seriously hope the next xpac is gonna be more dark and wowwy. hopefully itll be a burning legion return. burning legion feels like wow, gets my juices going ya know wot i mean arry... MoP.. glad im sitting it out